Here we have the quintessential Risi: short, tough lines, uncompromising in their social criticism, all the more biting through the clever use of simple language and straightforward structure. The conclusion of the second sentence contrasting with the scene-setting in the first. There is the feel of perpetuation in the opening present participle. There is a certain extravagance in the adverb, ‘buonariamente’ which suggests all is right with the world, with the domesticity broken apart in the final word, ‘sterminio’. The juxtaposition of a modern Italian domestic scene with Neanderthal lack of civilization cuts to the core. I’m appreciative of the tight rhyme scheme, the sequence of -a and -o rhymes. Risi at his best!

It’s been difficult to come to grips with the obscure nature of the rhetoric: swirling around ideas of commandment-like truths for people, interior and internal truths which move from the Old Testament to the Calvary and ‘new beginning’ of the New Testament. The middle lines, the kernel, are the most difficult to sort out: I have to assume the ‘solari’ (the adjective ‘solar’) belongs to the truths (le verita’) to which is attached the word ‘corali’, redolent of heavenly hosts singing on high, contrasted of course with the ‘fracasso infernale’, the infernal din with its strong ‘f’ sonority. There is of course ambiguity in the ‘sono un calvario’ which can mean either “I am” or “they are” (referring to the truths). As the title poem of the collection, more may be revealed by reading the rest of the works.

The power of Risi’s poetry resides in both the unpretentiousness of the present-continuous tense of verbs, amplified by the bareness of the poetic structure and the universality of metaphor. Of course, these and similar poems are a running commentary on Italian society and politics of the 1960s, of the strength of the burgeoning mass media, of a restless but essentially apathetic and switched-off generation, emerging from World War II. The insect metaphor is Risi’s response to the movement of the masses, where crowds originate and where they end up, the aimlessness of crowds and who is pulling and pushing them. There are essentially hopeless dreams of revolution and dramatic change and there is the wonderful break between the puny insects and the gross mass of the “fat cows”. Who or what the ‘fat cows’ might be is open to question – those who live off the insects, those who support the life of larger animals. Aurally, Risi contrasts soft “s” and “c” sounds (sciami, straccioni, sotto/spinta) with the stronger “b” (baracche, buona). Where the first stsnza is dependent on the “i” vowel, interest is created by a subtle to the “o” vowel in the second. Contrasting all with outwardly peaceful pastoral setting are images of violence implying war (spinta, cadono, abbattono).